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Origins of bomb disposal -

The making safe of a bomb has a long history. Vivian Dering Majendie (1836–1898) is generally regarded as the person who pioneered bomb disposal. An officer in the British Army, Majendie served as an instructor at the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich.

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Chief Inspector of Explosives -

In 1871, he was appointed Chief Inspector of Explosives. It was in this capacity that Majendie advised the government on the wording of the first Explosives Act, drawn up in 1875 with respect to manufacturing, keeping, selling, carrying, and importing gunpowder, nitroglycerine, and other explosive substances.

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Fenian dynamite campaign -

Majendie's expertise was called upon during the Fenian dynamite campaign of 1881–85. Orchestrated by Irish republican paramilitary groups in Great Britain, the campaign aimed to end British rule in Ireland. London's Victoria railway station and the Metropolitan Police headquarters (pictured) were among buildings targeted. Majendie personally defused a number of explosive devices, and his advice during the campaign was officially recognized as having contributed to the saving of lives.

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United States anarchist bombings -

In its effort to combat the dynamite bombs used by the Mafia to intimidate immigrant Italian merchants and residents in New York, the city's police department established its first bomb squad in 1903. This specialist tactical unit later became known as the "Radical Squad" for its response to the wave of bomb attacks carried out in 1919 by Italian-American anarchists. The bombing of the Washington, D.C. home of US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer was one of many such attacks targeting federal officials.

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Mass production of munitions -

The outbreak of the First World War saw the mass production of munitions. It also led to bomb disposal becoming a formalized practice.

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The dangers posed by "duds" -

The urgency to produce shells in their many thousands caused all sorts of manufacturing defects. In fact, a sizeable proportion of rounds fired by both sides were found to be "duds," or defective.

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Hazardous ordnance -

These duds were extremely hazardous to combatants and civilians alike. In response, the British dedicated a section of Ordnance Examiners from the Royal Army Ordnance Corps to address the problem.

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Delayed-action fuses -

No sooner had the British got to grips with the disposal of unexploded ordnance, the Germans developed delayed-action fuses that deviously mimicked a dud shell.

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Deadly design -

A delay-action bomb is an aerial bomb designed to explode sometime after impact. Short delays are used to allow the bomb to penetrate before exploding. Those with a longer delay are intended to disrupt salvage and other activities, and can remain dormant for days, even weeks.

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Time bomb tactics -

Not knowing when a delay-action might explode made the job of disposing of it truly hazardous. In this photograph, British and Belgian officers stand somewhat nonchalantly beside an unexploded German shell in Flanders, during the Great War.

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Unexploded bombs -

During the 1930s, Nazi Germany initiated a secret course of arms development that resulted in far more sophisticated unexploded ordinance, or unexploded bombs (UXB). These were employed with frightening success during the Spanish Civil War and provoked abject terror in the civilian population because of the uncertainty of their detonation time. The task of disarming them also proved far more complicated.

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Modern bomb disposal methods -

The birth of modern bomb disposal dates back to the Battle of Britain and the Blitz in 1940. Extensive bombing raids by the Luftwaffe resulted in thousands of UXB dropped over London and other British cities. In response, the War Cabinet created bomb disposal companies whose task was to defuse this deadly enemy ordnance.

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Handle with care -

The Germans then began fitting munitions with anti-handling devices—fuses that were specifically designed to kill bomb disposal personnel if tampered with.

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Floating mines -

Equally fraught with danger was the making safe of floating mines. Bomb disposal experts would often have to haul ashore a live mine before attempting to defuse it, risking its premature detonation.

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The Ordnance Corps -

British bomb disposal expertise had not gone unnoticed across the Atlantic. The United States War Department sponsored a bomb disposal program that was later formally established as a bomb disposal school under the supervision of the Ordnance Corps. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the Americans and their British colleagues created the Naval Mine Disposal School at the Naval Gun Factory in Washington, D.C. (pictured).

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Underwater Demolition Teams -

The following year, the US Navy founded the Underwater Demolition Teams (UDTs). Specialized in underwater demolition, closed-circuit diving, combat swimming, riverine warfare, and midget submarine operations, UDTs were predecessors of the Navy's current SEAL teams.

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Explosive Ordnance Disposal -

The first US Army Bomb Disposal companies were deployed in North Africa and Sicily in 1943. Bomb disposal teams were busily dealing with both Allied and Axis UXB and teaching troops the details of bomb reconnaissance. These companies collectively became known as Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), a term still used today.

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Specialist skills -

As the conflict progressed, the need for more soldiers specialized in bomb disposal methods increased. Land mines posed a particular menace, laid indiscriminately by both Allied and Axis units. Second World War-era mines are still killing and maiming people today. Pictured in January 1945 are British bomb disposal experts of the Eighth Army returning to Allied lines after having defused German mines along the Emilia-Romagna coast in Italy.

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The cleanup -

The Second World War left hundreds of thousands of unexploded ordnance—shells, mines, grenades, etc.—scattered across countries and territories throughout the world. Much of it was embedded deep in the ground and removing it claimed the lives of many brave and courageous individuals. Pictured in the 1950s is a bomb disposal squad engaged in the tricky job of removing a 2,000-pound (907-kilo) German bomb from the vicinity of University College Hospital in London, where it had lain since it was dropped in 1941.

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Other risks and hazards -

The ever-present danger of an explosion aside, there are numerous other risks and hazards associated with unexploded ordnance. For example, corrosion and damages sustained on impact might make UXB impossible to defuse. And even if unexploded ordnance does not explode, environmental pollutants are released as it degrades, contaminating water and soil over time.

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Bomb disposal robots -

In the early 1970s, the British Army developed a bomb disposal robot known as the Mk3 Wheelbarrow. It was used by officers of the 321 Explosive Ordinance Disposal Squadron (321 EOD) to defuse car bombs and pipe bombs planted by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

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An unlikely team -

Early bomb disposal robots were controlled via cumbersome control cables. In time, however, these machines were operated by remote control. Quite often though, it required the presence of an army bomb disposal expert to inspect a suspicious device or complete the defusing process.

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Appearance of the bomb suit -

The first bomb suits appeared in 1967, worn by police officers in response to the Maoist terrorist threat the territory was facing. The use of roadside bombs and petrol bombs by demonstrators prompted law enforcement to find ways of investigating and if necessary defusing suspect devices.

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"The long walk" -

Bomb suits were widely worn by army bomb disposal experts operating in Northern Ireland. They often cut lonely figures as they slowly walked towards a suspect vehicle in their heavy and cumbersome armor.

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Not suitable -

The bomb suit protects all parts of the body, since the dangers posed by a bomb's explosion affect the entire frame. But early versions of the suit were often unable to withstand the pressure generated by a bomb and any fragments produced by the blast.

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Advanced Bomb Suit -

The Advanced Bomb Suit (ABS) was specifically designed to protect EOD personnel from threats associated with improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The key component is Kevlar, a high strength material that's able to withstand fragmentation, blast overpressure, impact, heat, and flame.

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Working in the field -

The wearer is able to communicate with other operational personnel through speakers and microphone fitted to the helmet. For use in hot environments, an optional cooling system is available. Some suits are fitted with self-contained breathing apparatus.

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Working underwater -

US Navy EOD forces are trained to render safe explosive hazards and disarm underwater explosives such as mines. They can also handle chemical, biological, and radiological threats and are the only military EOD force that can both parachute from the air to reach distant targets or dive under the sea to disarm weapons.

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Iron harvest -

In Belgium and France, they have a name for the annual collection made by farmers of unexploded ordnance, barbed wire, shrapnel, and bullets left over from the First World War—récolte de fer, or "iron harvest." Pictured is a German artillery shell unearthed in a field near Ypres and awaiting disposal.

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Unseen killers -

The fact is recent history's military conflicts have left millions of UXB undetected around the globe. According to the United Nations, there are more than 100 million land mines alone lying buried underground, threatening lives in more than 70 countries.

Sources: (Army Historical Foundation) (JSTOR) (Navy Expeditionary Combat Command) (BBC) (The Conversation) (FBI) 

See also: The complex history of land mines

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